Ocular Morbidity in Egyptian Preterm Infants Discovered during Screening for Retinopathy of Prematurity

Purpose: No information is available in the literature about the true incidence of ocular abnormalities in preterm infants of the Egyptian population. This study was carried on preterm infants who were screened for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and accidentally discovered to have other ocular morbidity. Methods: This prospective study was carried in a neonatal ICU (NICU) facility owened to a non-governmental society with 80 incubators on 981 premature infants during a two year neonatal screening program. Infants suffering from ocular diseases unrelated to ROP were recorded. Results: In premature infants, accidentally discovered ocular diseases included two cases of bilateral retinoblastoma (0.20%), ten cases of congenital infection (1.01%), twenty nine cases of congenital anomalies (2.95%) and twenty cases of birth trauma (2.03%). Conclusion: The incidence of ROP in low birth weight neonates (less than 1500gm) during the screening program was 23%. An additional 6.19% of children had undiagnosed ocular conditions including neoplastic, infectious, hemorrhagic and congenital lesions. Ocular findings in this study mounted to 29.19%, emphasizing the importance of routine ocular and fundus examination of all neonates in NICUs at one month of age.